To the uninitiated, Michael Savage seems a bit, well, nutty. He screams at callers, he refuses to make small talk, and he entertains folks with stories about his pet dog, Teddy.
He loves that little dog.
I think that what is key to understanding this most unusual best-selling iconoclast is the knowledge that what he does, he does for a number of reasons, none of which necessarily prevail at any given moment.
Oh, sure, there's the entertainment value. He consciously perpetuates an edginess that keeps his program fresh and his listeners interested.
But, even more than Teddy, Savage loves the America of his dreams. An America safe from harm, from threats, and most of all, from the degeneracy he truly thinks that extreme liberalism poses to its welfare. And can it be gainsaid that he has some good ideas?
Like most iconoclasts, for those who are not quite in on his scene, he is best taken in small doses and with a pinch of iodized salt. You have the feeling that there's a part of him who looks at what he does and takes pity on himself that he must act the part of the shock jock to do his part to protect America. He hides this well, but not perfectly, and his internal struggle to do what is right is part of the psychodrama that is his show.
Taken for what it is, it's good radio.
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